Reese Witherspoon has signed on to follow up her critically-acclaimed performance in Wild with Downsizing. Ironically, the actress was initially attached way back in 2009 when we first reported on the project. Paul Giamatti and Sacha Baron Cohen were also attached to star at the time for director Alexander Payne, but it never moved forward, as the filmmaker went on to make Best Picture nominee The Descendants just a few years later. Matt Damon signed on to star back in November, playing a man who believes his life would be far better off if he shrunk himself, in what is described as a social satire.

Back in 2009, Reese Witherspoon was set to play a woman who met the shrinking man, then played by Paul Giamatti. It isn't known if she will still play the same role in this incarnation. Deadline reports that timing may be an issue with Reese Witherspoon, since this project will have to wait until after Matt Damon films his Untitled Bourne Sequel for Universal Pictures.

Alexander Payne is directing from a script he co-wrote with Jim Taylor, who he previously collaborated with on Citizen Ruth, Election, About Schmidt and Sideways. Aside from Wild, Reese Witherspoon also recently starred in Inherent Vice, and she is also attached to Wish List, Three Little Words and the Untitled Peggy Lee Project.